e-Audio, 11:23:01
Narrated by: Giordan Diaz, Jorjeana Marie, Max Meyers, and Eli Schiff
Release Date: April 28, 2026
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: April 16-17, 2026
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio App (I received this ALC free from the publisher and their app. I also received this e-ARC from Netgalley. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Death, Hazing
For Readers of: Action, Audio, Contemporary, Sparkly Cover, Mystery, Thriller, YAA new dark academia mystery that begins a year after a student’s mysterious disappearance when his brother finds clues that can help him and his friends solve their boarding school’s most elusive puzzle—and find his brother dead or alive.
It’s been a year and a half since Sutter Heyward’s brother, Lawson, disappeared from the secluded campus of Meddlehart Academy. Everyone has given up on finding him except for Sutter, who can’t shake the feeling that he’s out there somewhere and desperately needs help to make it home.
That is, until he and his friends uncover clues that Lawson was searching for their school’s rumored buried treasure the night he went missing . . . and there is a secret society on campus still trying to find it. They are the Order of the Vipers. Sutter and his friends don’t hesitate to join the hunt, but they quickly realize that becoming a Viper involves dangerous initiation rituals where the risk is often greater than the reward.
With every clue and secret they uncover, Sutter knows they are one step closer to solving the mystery of his brother’s disappearance. But as he digs closer to the deadly truth, he will discover that some things were meant to stay buried.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I was so excited for this one. I saw that it was comped to The Inheritance Games and I LOST it! I just knew I was going to love it. But once I started it I quickly saw it that wasn’t going to be the case. It was not at all what I was expecting.
So there is a bit about solving a puzzle, but it’s more like your average solving a mystery. There’s the secret society too, but that isn’t introduced until like way later in the book. At first people were like waving it off because they didn’t understand it. It was all weird and I didn’t love it. But I know some people love dark academia, so still pick it up anyways.
I did like all the secrets and things. Like damn, even the grown ups? I won’t say which ones, but they were hella close to the story. This whole thing was messy af and I can’t wait for y’all to pick it up and let me know what y’all think about the drama. I don’t read a lot of dark academia, but this one has all the secrets required I’m sure. It was like Fight Club lol
Unfortunately, I listened to this book over and over in some places and I just couldn’t get into it. In others I was captivated. I liked some things, but I don’t think it really worked for me entirely. It wasn’t really anything I would write home about. And no one hated that little tidbit more than me.
Overall, I give this
